Rail Baltica Brings Construction Safety into Focus at Riga Industry Day

Rail Baltica Brings Construction Safety into Focus at Riga Industry Day

Rail Baltica will bring infrastructure executives, construction contractors and occupational safety specialists together in Riga, Latvia, on 4 November 2026 for its annual Industry Day, examining the practical challenges of maintaining health and safety standards across a major cross-border railway construction programme.

Held under the theme Building Safety Culture: Health & Safety on Europe’s Largest Construction Sites, the hybrid event will draw on experience from major European infrastructure projects, including Britain’s HS2 programme. Discussions will cover contractor coordination, site leadership, accident prevention and the application of digital monitoring and artificial intelligence to construction safety.

The programme comes as construction progresses across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, where Rail Baltica is developing a European-standard-gauge railway connecting the Baltic states with the wider European rail network. Multiple construction contracts, different national regulatory environments and interfaces between civil engineering activities create demanding conditions for safety management across the three countries.

Briefing

• Rail Baltica Industry Day takes place on 4 November 2026 in Riga and online.
• The event focuses on construction safety culture, leadership and prevention across major infrastructure projects.
• Eiffage Génie Civil will contribute experience from the UK’s HS2 railway programme.
• Specialist sessions will examine AI-assisted safety monitoring, digital reporting and worker privacy.
• National implementing bodies from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will discuss consistent safety practices across the programme.

Managing Safety Across Three Countries

Major railway construction programmes bring together contractors working on earthworks, bridges, viaducts, drainage, utilities, railway systems and access infrastructure. These activities often overlap geographically and operationally, particularly where construction traffic, lifting operations and temporary works share restricted working areas.

For Rail Baltica, these challenges extend across three countries, each with its own regulatory authorities and construction industry arrangements. Although European occupational safety legislation provides a common framework, its implementation and enforcement remain matters for national authorities. Contractors must satisfy local legal requirements while working within the project’s broader health and safety expectations.

Rail Baltica’s central coordinating organisation, RB Rail AS, is using the event to encourage greater consistency between implementing bodies, contractors and their supply chains as construction activity expands.

Marko Kivila, Chairman of the Management Board and CEO of RB Rail AS, said: “Rail Baltica is one of Europe’s largest cross-border infrastructure projects, involving thousands of people, multiple contractors and construction sites across three countries. As construction progresses, our responsibility is not only to deliver the railway but to ensure that everyone involved can work safely. Safety cannot be treated as a separate requirement or a box to tick. It must be embedded in leadership decisions, planning, procurement and everyday operations.”

Procurement requirements, programme sequencing, subcontractor supervision and the allocation of sufficient time for safe working all influence conditions on site, often long before individual construction activities begin. On a programme involving numerous delivery organisations, those decisions must also account for the activities of neighbouring contractors and the movement of personnel and equipment between work areas.

Lessons from HS2 and European Megaprojects

The opening keynote will be delivered by Dan Kirby, Head of Quality, Safety, Health and Environment at Eiffage Génie Civil, whose experience includes Britain’s HS2 high-speed railway programme.

His presentation, The Safe Construction Site of 2026: From Compliance to Safety Culture, will consider the relationship between management leadership, preventative measures and individual responsibility. The discussion will examine how organisations establish working practices that encourage hazards to be identified and addressed before incidents occur.

HS2 offers a useful operational comparison. Its civil engineering programme includes extensive tunnelling, viaduct construction, major earthworks and numerous interfaces between delivery organisations. Like Rail Baltica, construction activities are distributed across a substantial geographical area, requiring consistent procedures and effective coordination between contractors operating under different work packages.

An international panel titled Learning from the Giants: Safety on Europe’s Megaprojects will explore the difficulties of coordinating contractors, maintaining common standards and sharing lessons between construction teams.

Deep excavations, heavy lifting, temporary structures and work around operational transport corridors create familiar hazards across major infrastructure programmes, even where contractual arrangements and national regulations differ. Experience gained in managing these activities can be applied to similar operations elsewhere, provided the differences in site conditions and working methods are properly understood.

Digital Monitoring and AI in Construction Safety

Digital safety management will be examined in a dedicated session titled Tech on the Toolbelt: What Actually Works on Site.

Alfredo Soreiro, Vice President of the International Safety and Health Construction Co-ordinators Organization (ISHCCO), and Associate Professor Karin Reinhold of Tallinn University of Technology will discuss digital safety tools, artificial intelligence, reporting systems and training technologies.

Digital permit-to-work systems can improve the visibility of authorised activities, while mobile reporting applications allow site personnel to record hazards and observations directly from the working environment. Connected equipment and proximity detection systems can also help manage interactions between construction machinery and workers.

AI-assisted image analysis offers additional possibilities, including the identification of potentially unsafe conditions in camera footage. However, the reliability of these systems depends on the quality of their training data, the operating environment and the procedures used to review alerts. Construction sites are particularly challenging because layouts, lighting, equipment movements and working activities change frequently.

Worker privacy and trust will also feature in the discussion. Camera-based monitoring, location tracking and automated behavioural analysis can involve personal data, requiring organisations to consider data protection obligations, proportionality and the appropriate involvement of employees and their representatives.

For European projects, the General Data Protection Regulation provides an important legal framework where identifiable workers are monitored. Certain AI applications used in employment and worker management may also be subject to additional requirements under the EU AI Act, depending on their intended purpose and the applicable provisions.

Poorly configured monitoring systems can generate excessive alerts, while reporting platforms that are difficult to use may discourage participation. The session will examine the practical application of these technologies and how organisations can improve safety without undermining workers’ privacy or trust.

Applying Common Standards on Rail Baltica Sites

The final session will concentrate on how safety principles are applied across Rail Baltica’s national construction programmes.

Representatives of Rail Baltic Estonia, Latvia’s Eiropas Dzelzceļa līnijas and Lithuania’s LTG Infra will join construction and health and safety specialists to discuss the practical arrangements used on their respective sites.

Ground conditions, access arrangements, contractor experience and the sequence of works can vary considerably, even within the same railway programme. Common approaches to incident reporting, contractor induction, safety observations and the communication of lessons learned must accommodate these differences while maintaining clearly defined responsibilities between project owners, construction supervisors and the companies carrying out the works.

Coordination between neighbouring contracts will become increasingly demanding as construction progresses. Vehicle movements, temporary access arrangements, lifting operations and changes to site boundaries can affect adjacent work areas, requiring planning and communication between organisations that may otherwise operate independently.

The event will provide an opportunity for the three national implementing bodies to compare their approaches and draw on experience from other European infrastructure programmes.

Rail Baltica Industry Day 2026 takes place on Wednesday, 4 November, in Riga, with online participation available for international attendees. The programme is intended for infrastructure owners, engineering and construction companies, project managers, health and safety professionals and construction technology providers.

Key Industry Questions

1. When is Rail Baltica Industry Day 2026? The event takes place on Wednesday, 4 November 2026, in Riga, Latvia, with online participation available.
2. What is the main focus of the event? Construction health and safety, particularly leadership, preventative working practices, contractor coordination and digital safety technologies across large infrastructure programmes.
3. Which major infrastructure projects will contribute experience? The programme includes expertise from the UK’s HS2 railway programme, with wider European megaproject experience forming part of an international panel discussion.
4. How can AI be used to improve construction site safety? AI can assist with analysing site imagery, detecting potentially hazardous conditions and processing safety information. Its effectiveness depends on reliable systems, appropriate human oversight and clearly defined operating procedures.
5. What are the privacy concerns associated with digital safety monitoring? Systems involving identifiable workers may process personal data. Organisations must consider lawful processing, transparency, proportionality, security and applicable employment and data protection requirements.
6. How are safety responsibilities coordinated between contractors? Project owners and principal contractors can establish common reporting procedures, clearly defined responsibilities and arrangements for managing shared work areas. Individual contractors remain responsible for meeting their applicable legal and contractual obligations.
7. Why is cross-border safety coordination challenging? Different national legal requirements, contractor organisations, working methods and project interfaces can complicate consistent implementation. Shared procedures must operate alongside country-specific obligations.
8. Who should attend Rail Baltica Industry Day? The programme is relevant to construction contractors, engineering consultants, infrastructure owners, project delivery organisations, safety professionals and construction technology providers.

Strategic Takeaways

1. Cross-border infrastructure programmes need safety procedures that accommodate national legislation while maintaining consistent project-wide expectations.
2. Procurement and programme sequencing can reduce construction hazards before work begins, particularly where multiple contractors share access and working areas.
3. Experience from HS2 and other major projects can inform the management of temporary works, heavy lifting and contractor interfaces.
4. AI-assisted monitoring and digital reporting require practical validation, human oversight and appropriate protection of workers’ personal data.
5. Consistent incident reporting and the exchange of lessons between national delivery organisations can support safer working practices as construction activity expands.